A solid start for Arklow with win over Tullow RFC

ARKLOW RFC TULLOW RFC 29 14

ARKLOW under-14s kicked off their season in fine style at home to Tullow RFC with a solid 29-14 win.

The two teams had some tight matches last year with Arklow losing the last of these in the SE Leinster final, so some pride was at stake in Saturday’s match.

Arklow started in the front foot launching a number of cross field kicks which Tullow managed to handle.

Both sides’ number 8s were picking off the scrum meaning a lot hard tackling by respecting backlines.

One such move saw Dean Farrell finally breach the line for Arklow out right making it 5-0.

Arklow won a subsequent scrum against the head but another drive by Dean was stifled with Tullow passing back over their line to clear, but the pass was intercepted by Rian Downes for their second try.

Calvin Kirya nearly made it in for a third try but was called back for an earlier forward pass. Arklow suffered a yellow card for Eoin Gavigan before half time due to a high tackle, leaving them down to 14 into the second half. The half-time score read 12-0.

Arklow pushed on in the second half despite some strong breaks by Tullow, and were rewarded with three points from a penalty inside the 22.

From the restart full back Chris O’Brien wove his way through Tullow, offloading to Dean Farrell, leading eventually to a try under the posts.

Tullow now upped the stakes and drove through the phases seeing their number 8 over for a deserved try.

Arklow responded to pull clear with another end to end try started by Chris O’Brien and finished by captain Luke Doyle. Tullow got a consolation try at the death with good driving play again. Full-time score: 29-14. There were fine performances across the Arklow squad, including Conn Kinsella, Oisin Beirne and Chris O’Brien but special mention goes to Ignacio Serina and Robert Gormley playing their first matches for the club.

Roy Bailham, Eoin Byrne, Darragh Ivanoff, Robert Gormley, Theo Vanhoove, Josh Tunney, Oran Kelly, Dean Farrell, Sean McCarthy, Rian Downes, Padraic Bermingham, Eoin Gavigan, Conn Kinsella, Luke Doyle, Chris O’Brien, Oisin Beirne, Calvin Kirya, Zander Davis, Ignacio Serina.